Yoko: The songs we did for that movie and TV show are on this album, but that did make it harder to put together. In that way, I suppose it was harder to make this album than usual.

Yoko: Well, not out of the actual production of the songs for those projects, but I think they were inspiring experiences.

Yoko: I started with the title, "Metropolis." I wanted to have songs that sort of looked at the world in a way that matched that. No, wait, that might not be it. (laughs)

Yoko: On our West coast tour last year, I saw the San Francisco city lights at night, and it looked really amazing, like... I don't know, like a space station. That's when I thought up the title, you know, to represent something wonderful, or something big, or... you know. (laughs)

Ikuno: Oh, I did two songs for this one as well.

Ikuno: I don't think I'd heard what the title was when I wrote them. Had I?
Yoko: No, you hadn't. (laughs)
Ikuno: So I think I just wrote them like I usually do. Just, you know, "how about this?"

Ikuno: Yes. But I did think about balancing out the songs on the album, and things like that.

Ayumi: Well, we have the sound staff set it up to play along with us as we're performing.
Ikuno: We use that for the synthesizer parts.

Yoko: Yes.

Yoko: Those are mostly the same. We actually use a fair amount of synthesizer normally, but there are a lot of songs on this album where the synthesizer stands out.

Yoko: No, it's more that the kind of sound I like now is one that uses synthesizer more.

Yoko: Well, I like C.S.S. lately. Do you know them?

Yoko: Right. So we haven't gone towards that sound completely, but I thought that a sound with more synthesizer would work for the Noodles as we are now.

Yoko: The one I'm using all the time now is a handmade Dyna Red from Sweden. I like that one. Other than that, we use the usual distortion ones, I think.

Yoko: Isn't it six?
Ikuno: I thought it was four.
Yoko: Well, let's say four or five.

Yoko: I noticed from the first time we came here that the way people appreciate music in America is completely different from the way people do in Japan. It's very free. I like that. Um... that's all. (laughs)

Ikuno: I think maybe adults listen to rock music more in America than in Japan.
Yoko: Yeah, in Japan, rock music is for kids, or for young people, so when people grow up they stop listening to it.
Ikuno: But adults who listen to rock music blend right in over here. They're accepted. The other thing is that shows are more expensive in Japan. I guess that makes it something special to go to a show in Japan, but in America it's more common and everyday. At least, that's how it seems. I haven't lived here, so I don't really know.

Ayumi: Oh, uh... (laughs)

Ayumi: Well, let's see, I think there's a lot more music playing just in daily life. In Japan, things get sorted really strictly by genre, I mean…I guess people choose a specific thing that they want to listen to and go with that. But here it seems like it's just sort of naturally part of life, mixed in with everything.

Yoko: We do have a lot of songs with English lyrics, right? So I feel a little embarrassed about that. But it feels really great to be in a country so far away and still have people come to see us play, still like our music.

Yoko: Hmm.

Yoko: Well, sixteen years or seventeen years is a really long time. And people talk a lot about how great we are for being together that long. When that started I didn't think it was that big a deal that we just kept going on, but lately I've started to think that maybe it is. I think playing music as a band, several people doing the same thing together, is really difficult, but it's also really fun.

Ayumi: Um, that's OK. (laughs)

Yoko: I've wanted to since I was a kid.
Ikuno: When I was 22, I sort of thought it up, I guess.

Ikuno: In high school I wanted to get into computer graphics, so I went to a school for that and found work that way, but in the middle of that I somehow ended up wanting to play music instead. So I went out and bought an instrument. (laughs)

Ikuno: No, I hadn't played anything at all then.

Ayumi: At first, I wanted to be involved with music in the background, working on sound systems or as an engineer. I'd known I wanted to do something with music since I was little, but I wanted to do it in that way. I really liked fiddling with fader switches. And then I suddenly got to know the other band members, and got invited to play with them.

Ayumi: (laughs) Not now, I don't. I just watch.

Yoko: Hmm.

Yoko: Well, the first day of our tour over here is the release date for our new album, Metropolis. So it's not on sale over in America yet, but I'd like you to listen to it however you can.

Yoko, Ayumi, Ikuno: Thank you very much.